sole right of emigrating <​to​> and settling that new country to the exclusion of others. He was in favour of the being settled, and he thought the bills already before the house would extend equal protection to us— and equal protection to every class of citizens was what the government could rightly do, but particular privileges to any one class they could not rightly do. I observed, that the bill asked for no exclusive rights. It asks not for exclusive rights in , Neither do we wish it. Other people might make a move to and no prejudices bar their way, & their motives would not be mis-interpreted: But said I knows her guilty, and should we attempt to march to , Missourians are [illegible] without the government throwing a protective shield over us, ’s guilt <​crimes​> would lead her first to misinterept our intentions, to fan the flame of popular excitement against us, and scatter the firebrands of a mis-guided zeal among the combustible materials of other places, creating a flame too hot for us to encounter, too desolating for us to indulge the hope of successfully controverting prosecuting the grand and benevolent enterprize which we have conceived. We have been compelled to relinquish our rights in . We have been forcibly driven from our homes, leaving our property and inheritances a spoil to the oppressor; and more or less in we have been subject to the whims and chimeras of illiberal men, and to threats, to vexations prosecutions and law suits. Our government profess to have no power to help us, or to [p. 3]